Grade 12 students rockin' the Northern Pen: Fourfivefour drops mature debut album
Have a First Listen to Room 201 by Fourfivefour
When the St. Anthony alt-rock Fourfivefour formed, its members — Cameron Simms, Cole Thompson and Luke Reardon, all Grade 12 students at White Hills Academy in St. Anthony — found that one of the biggest challenges was coming up with the name itself.
"We kept trying to decide on a band name and it took absolutely forever," Simms told CBC's Weekend AM. They settled on a moniker that reflected the St. Anthony-area telephone number prefix 454.
Simms said they started recording their debut album two years ago, but didn't complete it until 2021, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic. The result is a mature, guitar-heavy, 10-track album called Room 201, named for a large classroom in their school.
Simms said they got a great reaction at the school when they performed the song The Road Not Taken, based on the Robert Frost poem of the same name, as a tribute to their English teacher, who was retiring.
"We thought, '[Let's] do like an awesome send-off and make a song based on a poem he told us to memorize at the beginning of the year."
LISTEN | Fourfivefour speaks to the CBC's Paula Gale about their new album, Room 201:
"The school seemed to love it. I can tell Mr. Hicks definitely loved it.… Looking back, though, we've definitely grown as musicians since that first performance."
Simms said the band members are heading to college or university next year but he's going to try to keep the music alive.
"We're definitely going to be releasing at least another thing. But when that will be, I'm not sure."
Do you have a new album of music that Weekend AM should know about for First Listen? Email us, wam@cbc.ca, and tell us about it.
You can hear First Listen on Sundays on Weekend AM from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. (5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in Labrador) on CBC Radio One.
Want more Weekend AM? Subscribe to the podcast:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
